Photo of the Week: The Hoover Dam

The Hoover Dam from a Helicopter. I learned to love seeing things from above on this helicopter ride.

Warsaw to Berlin

Day 30: Warsaw to Berlin: Our drive today passes through the Polish-German border to the cultural capital of Germany, Berlin. Upon arrival we'll see the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate and the Russian Memorial. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: The Generator

Breakfast: 7:30 Bags to the bus/depart: 8:00

This morning started with a really yummy breakfast, I love Poland! At 10:50 we had our first bathroom break which was the perfect opportunity to for people to analyze Andy's new t-shirt, it had a bunch of sperm swimming to the middle of the shirt where it said, "Everyone Loves Poland." I thought it was clever, others didn't get it. I was also wearing my new shirt that said "Polska," not entirely fitting for a trip to Germany, but it somehow worked out for me.

At 1:40 we had a lunch stop at McDonalds. Then at 4:35 we hit traffic at the border for Germany, fortunately we weren't a truck, their line was miles long. We were through the border by 5:00 and we even got stamps! That was totally unexpected, we assumed it had to do with the fact that the World Cup was going on in Germany and they had heightened security. By the way, as we were driving to Berlin the Germany Vs Equador game was being played in Berlin.
At 6:00 we got into Berlin, I know this because all of a sudden we started to see German fans walking the street with flags and other interesting German paraphernalia, apparently Germany had won. YEAAAAAA!!!!!! Once in the city we made a quick stop at the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall for pictures then headed to The Generator, where we would be staying. It was quite warm in Berlin, around 30° Celsius (86° Fahrenheit), and the hostel didn't have air conditioning, ugh. The next day we would find out that not much of Berlin had air conditioning, hazard of being a relatively cool city I guess.

The Berlin wall was built overnight and is an icon of the Cold War. After WWII the agreement between the allies was that Germany and Berlin were to be split up, as a temporary measure. But Stalin was in charge in Russia, and Berlin was in the middle of Eastern Germany, which wasn't doing well economically while Berlin was (thanks to foreign aid from the Allies). Berlin was the gateway out of the East, in Berlin you could basically do a one to one exchange for your East German passport for a West German passport and then travel freely.

At 1am on August 13, 1961 East German soldiers built the Berlin Wall around West Berlin, using barbed wire and checkpoints. Some people fell asleep at friends homes in the East side and couldn't get back home in the morning. This happened to one woman who didn't see her sister until the fall of the Berlin Wall. It split up families, screwed up roads and kept people from going to work.

The Wall caused problems with the Metro too. Many train lines covered stops on both sides of the Wall. Those trains were initially stopped, but eventually they made an agreement. The trains would run, but would not stop at the East Berlin stops, they would spend 28 years as empty unused metro stops.

The first wall was built 5-8 feet tall and 2 and a half feet wide, with broken glass on the top to keep you from climbing over. But over time the wall was improved, eventually it was built 8 to 12 feet tall with a cement pipe on top to make it impossible to get over the wall. The Wall also had a "dead zone" which included guard towers, anyone in that area would be shot dead. Some devised ways of crossing, but some died trying. They believe that 90% of attempts were thwarted. The Checkpoint Charlie Museum has a lot of paraphernalia about the many escapes.

In 1963 John F. Kennedy visited Berlin in a demonstration of solidarity. This is when JFK made his famous speech and said: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'" The phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner" has been often translated into "I am a jelly donut," though after an extensive search of the internet, I am convinced that he really did say "I am a Berliner," and not, "I am a jelly donut." Though I now understand that the translation could easily be mistaken. Either way, it has been the butt of many jokes, and some t-shirts too, though I never found one.

On June 12, 1987 Ronald Regan visited the Berlin Wall and spoke his famous speech where he says, "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

After this speech there is much turmoil in the Hungary, as there had been all across the Eastern Block. On November 9, 1989 it is announced that travel rules were lifted and those with the proper paper work (exit visa's) will be allowed out of Eastern Berlin, he said it was immediate - no one expected the response they got. Thousands went to the wall for exit visas, the guards are overwhelmed and had no instructions as to what to do with these people. So they took the wall down themselves... and so the Berlin Wall finally fell after 28 years. It took a full year to physically take the whole wall down, except a few remaining sections for posterity. And who was the first person to sing there? The Hoff! Yes, on New Years Eve the honor of singing on the Berlin Wall went to David Hasselhoff! Gotta love the Germans and their Hoff!

I was in room 302 (which at least had it's own bathroom - though it was smaller then the bathrooms I've had on cruise ships - with Tanya, Leah and Cathy, but we had 6 beds in it. Due to some roommate conflicts Bridget was going to be using one of our extra beds. After a few minutes to freshen up we were supposed to meet downstairs. Maggy showed us a little video she had made for us with our day song and pictures from the tour, how sweet. And then it was time to hit the town!

Ash drove us as close to the Reichstag as he could and along the way you could tell it was going to be a good night. People were all over the place drinking and partying. Once there I went with Cathy, Leah and Bridget to find an ATM, taking pictures and soaking in the atmosphere when we went by the fan mile to the area where the Brandenburg Gate is. We finally found one and then went to scope out a place to eat, we found a little sidewalk cafe about 2 blocks from the Brandenburg Gate that was able to seat all 12 of us, we had picked up Andy, Kate, Lis, Jilly, Cara, Renae, Caroline and AJ. During dinner Tom called, apparently he had fallen asleep and just woken up, Lis told him where we were and he met up with us. We all had really nice dinners and reasonably priced considering it was the middle of World Cup - 13.00 euros for a steak dinner.

After dinner we all walked over to the fan mile, apparently the England Vs Sweden game had just finished, which was why it was really hard to get in (most people were leaving). But some of us wanted to get in so Leah, Renae, Cathy, AJ, Caronline, Cara and I pushed our way in. At first we just soaked in the atmosphere and took pictures, and there was a lot of atmosphere to soak in, those Germans (and whoever else) can party!

Eventually we decided to walk around a bit and we found a dance floor with music and people dancing (go figure), and for one of the rare occasions of my life I actually danced! Renae even commented at one point that I looked so happy, and honestly this was one, if not THE, best night I had on tour. Here we ran into Skye, Tom and Bridget too. We also met some strange men that were looking for attention, they even had a little dance off for us. I think one of them was Polish because he seemed to like me and asked something about my shirt (which said Polska on it). At one point the song, "Footballs Coming Home," came on, apparently everyone but us had heard the song and loved it. So we loved it and sang along like everyone else, the song will always remind me of that night.

Eventually we were so hot and tired and decided to duck off the dance floor to get drinks. I got some souvenirs, a World Cup pin. I tried calling home (having a cell phone was handy, even at $1.50 a minute) to talk to my sister and see if my brother-in-law would want something. We were just in time since they were starting to close up for the night, they were also running low on pins. Then we went back to the dance floor again, but I didn't stay long, I went with Tom, Bridget and someone else to see what was even further down the fan mile, it was another giant screen showing recaps from the World Cup games. This crowd was more subdued (they were only screaming, not dancing too.) There were a ton of police there too. Then we all met up again and decided it was time to head back.

For some reason we decided to walk back to the tram, which seemed like a decent walk until you realized it was 12:30 and it really was a long walk, around 2K. While waiting to cross some street a guy said something about me being Polish, apparently he was a fan, I didn't argue the point. Then along the way we saw the UN Buddy Bears and took lots of pictures there too. After losing people and then getting back together we finally arrived at the tram stop, only to have missed the tram by 1 minute. If we had realized the tram was running every 30 minutes we could have run to it, owell. So we waited and waited and it finally came (all public transport was running 24 hours a day because of the World Cup). We finally got back to the hostel at 2:15 and was in my unairconditioned bed at 2:30am. FYI: Taxi's are pretty cheap in Berlin, or so I would hear the next day, but if we took a Taxi we wouldn't have had the adventure.

Reward Ticket Frustration

In August I'm going to Las Vegas on a family trip (I know, I never learn) and was going to use a old Jetblue Trueblue Reward (no, I'm not going to pick on Jetblue, ok, maybe a little bit) for one of the flights. My family (this is not the sister I went to Disney with in May) is going out on a Wednesday and returning on a Tuesday. My original plan was to fly out on Wednesday with them and return Sunday. However, I am having surgery a few weeks before and was trying to move that to a week earlier, which doesn't seem to be working out. In the meantime I was waiting for word on that and sitting on the fence with this trip. Well two of my friends recently, in the same week, had a young female friend die of cancer, I decided to not worry so much about my recovery from the surgery and just go on the trip.

When I looked at the flights the flight out was in the $200 range and the flight home was in the $400 range. But, plan A was to book the flight out with my sister and her family using the reward ticket and then wait and see what happened, hoping the flights would go down and/or I would be able to stay the extra days. I didn't have much of a plan B, just to try and book going home with it.

So I called Jetblue and they only had a ticket for much later in the day that the family was flying out. I went to plan B and they had one late afternoon flight coming home. I wasn't sure I wanted to fly back so late, so I called my sister first. I tried to get off the phone with her, but she kept talking. By the time I got on the phone with Jetblue again the last reward ticket was gone. There wasn't really anything else that fit with my plans either, and I called like 4 times too.

I waited a few days and came up with Plan C - I would switch my vacation week to the following week and fly out on Friday and come home one Tuesday with the family. I called Jetblue and I should have asked about the return flight first but I asked about Friday's flights instead. They had a seat on each of the later flights that day so I took the earlier of the two. Success!!!! I may try to go standby on an earlier one, I'll see how things are going when the time comes.

I tried to book the flight home with the family but it looks like Jetblue changed he time of their flight. Their confirmation email shows a different time then their website says. I asked my sister twice to check that and she ignored me, so I figured out a way to check their flight and it turns out their flight was changed. I booked the flight and now I don't have to worry about it anymore!

Photo of the Week: Disney with the family

Anyone who follows me on Twitter, travelingiraffe knows that at the end of May I went to Disney World. I went with my mom, sister and my sister's family. I actually have 2 sisters, one of which I vacation with fairly regularly - Disney and Vegas. The sister that I went on this recent trip with I don't spend nearly as much time with, but she has 2 young boys - an infant and a 4 year old.

This was actually my worst trip to Disney and has me rethinking going on family trips. Don't get me wrong, I had some good times, but I wouldn't do this trip over again if you paid me. Over the next few weeks I'll write some posts about this trip, I'll cover things like:
The Boardwalk Villas, making your family feel welcome on a trip, rides, touring the parks, dining, screaming children and how not to travel with children, getting on the wrong plane and lots of other stuff.

But just to give you an idea of how great this trip was, I came home and immediately had a cold, what fun!!!!

Warsaw

Day 29: Warsaw Sightseeing: Warsaw, the rebuilt capital of Poland, and home of Chopin, features many tributes to her turbulent history, not least the Ghetto Heroes monument. See it all on our sightseeing tour. Wander through the old city and Chopin's park. A chance to do your own thing tonight and try the local fare. (Breakfast included)

Hotel: Hotel Kyriad Prestige
Breakfast: 8:30 Bus departs: 9:00

Our wake-up calls this morning were screwed up, I got mine at 7:05, but apparently they were supposed to be at 8:00. I was already up when they called, but I got nervous that I screwed up the breakfast time and was running late. Breakfast was a wonderful spread though: more fruit, bacon, eggs, yogurt, rolls, toast (with little jars of jelly), cereal and more.

At 9:00 we went on our Warsaw city tour with our local guide. She explained to us about how 85% of the city had been destroyed during WWII. But after the war it was all rebuilt, including the Old Town, which was rebuilt exactly as it existed before. On the tour we were told about the 4 men with mustaches - the 4 great leaders of Poland, we saw the park that has the statue of Chopin, and where the Warsaw Ghetto was (including a remaining piece of the wall). The guide explained to us about the Ghetto and the famous uprising.

Poland generally hasn’t done so well. They had a rough history in general, then the Nazi’s came and destroyed much of the city (along with kill a bunch of people while they were there), then the Russians came and destroyed the rest of the city. Then they lived under Communism for decades. But Warsaw is a nice city and the people even nicer.

Our tour of Warsaw ended in the Old Town. I made a quick stop to mail off my last postcards then we had “lunch” in a little café, ok, it was really just a pastry, but a good one. In the square we took pictures with the little mermaid’s sister and did some shopping. Then we went to see the sights and get some good pictures of the memorials we had seen along the way.

Our first stop was at Marie Curie’s house, then the memorial with the cart holding the crosses (for the Polish people sent to Siberia under Communism). Along the way we ran into Tania who needed to get pictures burned to CD since her memory card was almost full. We also saw the Supreme Court and the memorial to the Warsaw uprising. On the way to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier we saw Nike, Goddess of War, and the Opera House. At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier we saw the ended of the changing of the guard and then some rude tourists got in front of our pictures, and hung around for a little too long. Where are people’s manors? After getting our pictures we went on our way to the church where Chopin’s heart is buried - St. Cross's Church. We tried to walk around a bit inconspicuously, but couldn’t find it. Finally, I sat down with Lis and Kate while Andrew and Jilly asked someone who worked there. It turned out we were sitting next to the pillar where his heart was buried, except we were on the opposite side of the plaque, we weren’t that stupid. Then we headed back to the Old Town for lunch passing a statue of Copernicus along the way.

We decided to have lunch in the Old Town, we looked at a couple menus and the prices seemed reasonable so we picked one of the outdoor cafés. It was really nice to sit and people watch while having a nice lunch with a delicious dessert.

At 4:00 Lis, Jilly and I met the bus to go to the Chopin recital. The recital was in a lovely location with a lake and peacocks hanging around. The recital itself was very nice and relaxing, and came with a glass of Champagne, though I must admit I did struggle to stay awake at one point. But the piano player was wonderful and it was amazing to watch her fingers move so fast.

After the recital we were dropped off back at the Old Town to finish our free day in Warsaw. Lis, Jilly and I decided to go shopping since Jilly needed new jeans. We took the bus to where the shopping was, but since we couldn’t remember how to pay for the bus we ended up riding it for free, opps. No one made any purchases and we decided to walk back to the hotel (we were just on the other side of Central Station), even though we were really tired. We decided that we should grab dinner on the way back and ended up with Subway, which I was fine with since we had had a nice lunch.

Back at the hotel everyone was getting ready to go out to a bar and meet up with the Eastern Road Tour group that had come into Warsaw today, but I was way to tired to go out. Instead I did more laundry, I realized I was almost out of t-shirts, and played Uno with Lis and Andy while having my last Smirnoff Ice that I had bought in Stockholm.

Jetblue

On my trip to Disney I flew Jetblue (please note that in recent posts complaining about Jetblue I never said I wouldn't fly them again.) I'm getting more and more disenchanted with Jetblue's customer service - I think they might be a bunch of robots over there.

For my flight down Mom decided she wanted an earlier flight. I called the day before the flight to find out my options; $100 change fee plus the difference in the cost of the flight, wait until midnight and pay $40 for a confirmed seat, or go standby at the airport. The problem is that the girl sounded like a robot, like she pre-recorded the message and just plays it when someone asks about changing flights, it was kinda creepy actually. I opted to book at midnight and pay the $40.
On the return trip the entire planes luggage went missing for an hour. The only acknowledgment of that was after flights that landed after us got there luggage - they told us it would come out momentarily, it didn't come for another half an hour.



I wrote an email to Jetblue's head of customer service. I mentioned all of my problems this year with them. The initial email seemed to be written by an actual person, and then I was passed onto someone else regarding the issue of the Truepass. I knew it wouldn't go anywhere, and it didn't. I got hopeful for a few minutes, but I knew it was a waste of time. In the end, Jetblue put a better face forward this time, though I'm still not in love with them.

Ebook Review: Art of Solo Travel: A Girls Guide

I recently got an opportunity to read an advance portion of the ebook Art of Solo Travel, and since then have read the whole book. While this is touted as a Girl's guide, I found that the "girl" part was a small part of the book and it has a lot of information about general travel.

I found the book to be a quick, easy and informative read.

The good:
The most info I've seen about Couchsurfing.
It's encouraging.
Good information on dealing with your family.


The bad:
Not as much information specific to women.
Could have more information about other forms of lodging.
Thought the section on saving money and budgeting was a little thin.
It's a little light on recommending safety tips - such as read up on self defense. I've taken self defense classes in the past and even doing it it hard, reading about it isn't going to do much for you.

Overall it is a good book. I've read some similar stuff before which I found a little more information rich then this book. However, this book is more up to date and is handy in an ebook format. For those of you experience travelers, you can probably skip this book. But for a novice or someone who needs some encouragement you'll find great value in this book.

If you're interested in supporting my blog while purchasing the book, please use this link.

Photo of the Week: Lunch in Rome

Lunch at the Pantheon in Rome. It made for a great "place dropping" email.

Minsk to Warsaw

Day 28: Minsk to Warsaw: This morning we travel through Brest, the first Soviet city destroyed in World War II, before crossing the Polish border for two nights at our hotel in Warsaw. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Hotel Kyriad Prestige

Breakfast: 8:30 Bus departs: 9:00

This morning I got my passport back, and was sad to discover that there was no Belarus Visa in it, for what they charge you would think they could actually put a stamp or something in it! Our first stop this morning was at Brest Fortress, which has another nice memorial, in fact it was awarded the title of a “Hero-Fortress,” whatever that means. While walking around Lis, Jilly, and Brittany met a Belarusian woman who told them how happy she was to see tourists in Belarus and that she hoped more people would visit, she was a nice, well educated woman (I ran into them on my way back to the bus and heard some of the conversation).

At 1:15 we arrived at the border, which we were warned would be the toughest border of the trip. At first we waited in the bus in the sun, which was a bit rough since it had gotten quite warm out, but fortunately we were allowed off the bus. Then they moved our bus to an area that had a canopy but we weren’t told we could get off the bus. Well the bus got really hot really fast and people got antsy. I swear it got hotter once people started to complain, the atmosphere on the bus quickly deteriorated as the temperature went up. Eventually some people took it upon themselves to get off the bus, which didn’t seem to cause us any delays. In the meantime Maggy was getting bribed for 2,000 Euros (The tour ahead of us had gotten bribed for 200 Euros at this border and Anna, from St. Petersburg, took care of it), she called Anna who took care of it, that would have really sucked! Finally at 4:30 we were out of Belarus and into Poland, with exit and entry stamps in our passports! And again we changed our watches back an hour.

Just after entering Poland I looked out the window and on the side of the road, which was down a little hill, there was a naked man walking around. Interesting... Then when we were in Warsaw if you looked out the left side of the bus (I was on the right side) there was a guy fondling the breast of a woman in the car with him, he apparently wasn’t being very discrete. Ahh, the joy of people.

We got to our hotel at 6:40 and this was by far the best hotel on the tour, actually the best I’ve stayed in on a Contiki Tour. Not only was it clean, technologically advanced for a hotel, but it was also tastefully decorated. Who couldn’t say good things about a place where you could listen to the TV in the bathroom! Before dinner Lis and I went around the corner to a bank to get ourselves some Zloty for our stay in Poland. Our dinner was delicious and dessert was a bowl of fruit, not just any fruit - freshly cut fruit and not cheap fruit, but a delicious variety of good fruits.

After dinner Lis, Jilly, Andy and I walked over to Central Station to use the internet. Did I mention that not only was the hotel great but also a short walk from Central Station, meaning it was actually in the city! I used the internet for about half an hour for 3 Zloty and had gotten emails from some of the girls from the Scandi half of the tour; it was nice to hear from them, they were doing well. We got back to the hotel a little before 11:00 and I decided to do some laundry before going to bed, ahhh clean clothes.

What's on your bucket list?

Chris Christensen from the Amateur Traveler posted his travel bucket list, which makes me wonder what's on my list, and what's on yours?

I've always had a list of places I want to go and always think I should make my bucket list, now I'm working on it - here ya go. It's of course always subject to change...

Jerusalm, Israel

Ankor Watt, Cambodia

Normandy, France

Sky Diving in New Zealand

Antarctica

See giraffes in Africa

See the Olympics LIVE

So where do you want to go before you die? Or where have you been that was worth every minute of the trip?

Some things that weren't on my bucket list, but should have been:

Abu Simbel, Egypt

World Cup in Germany

Visiting the Arctic Circle

Zorbing

Photo of the Week: Washington DC

More from Washington, DC and the Cherry Blossoms. I like the slight blur of the Cherry Blossoms but the focus of the Jefferson Memorial.

Yartsevo to Minsk

Day 27: Yartsevo to Minsk: A visit to Smolensk on our way to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where we will enjoy a sightseeing tour of this former Soviet stronghold. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Hotel Orbita
Breakfast: 8:30 Bus departs: 9:00

Some people were still drunk this morning at breakfast. Renae made me bread with vegemite on it, as she had promised. Vegemite is vile! Lets just say that the fact that I thought my gagging on it would make the hung over people at my table throw-up so I had to use all of my restraint to control myself. After breakfast we had a tour of Smolensk, a dingy little Russian town. The Cathedral of the Assumption was the highlight of the tour, it is a remarkable cathedral.

At 9:45 we had a stop at Katyn Forrest where 21,000 Polish elite were rounded up and executed by the Russians, simply for being smart, which was a threat to Stalin. When this was discovered the Russians blamed the Germans (easy targets after WWII) and tried to divert attention by building a memorial at Khatyn Village (which I will describe later). In 1990 Gorbachev finally admitted to a mild version of the events that transpired here. The memorial here is very serene, a pathway through the woods with little memorials throughout. After walking through I used the bathroom before heading to the Belarus border, a very good decision.

At 11:00 we arrived at the Belarus border and made it into Belarus fairly easily by 11:55. Once in Belarus we had to turn our watches back 1 hour. At 12:15 we had a lunch stop on the side of the road. It had a closed restaurant on our side of the road and an open one (with a decent bathroom, or so I’m told) on the other side of the road. The bathroom on our side of the road was the worst bathroom I have EVER seen in my life! It smelled from a mile away too. I skipped using the bathroom at this stop.

On the bus we played some games to make the drive go faster and Maggy told us a little about Belarus. One of the things she told us about was Chernobyl, which was actually in the Ukraine, but 60% of the fall out landed in Belarus leaving large portions of the land unusable. There have also been reports of “monster babies,” which are quickly taken away from their mothers. It is believed to be the result of all the nuclear waste that went into Belarus and other surrounding countries, like Russia. This has also lead women to actively avoid men (as partners) who have genetic ties to areas near the nuclear fallout, and men to try and hide their ties.

At 3:15 I overheard Maggy on the phone with the local guide, telling her that we were lost and wouldn’t make it into Minsk until 5:30-6:00. I guess these things happen when the road signs aren’t in English.

At 4:15 we arrived at Khatyn Village for a 30 minute stop. In Khatyn Village the Nazi’s had come, rounded everyone from the town up, put them in one shed and burned it down, there were 3 survivors. 2 girls and 1 man. The 2 girls went to live in another village and were killed when that village was also burned alive. The man is Josef Kaminski, who is the man modeled in the Unconquered Man statue holding a child, he is holding his son who he found at the site after the Nazi's left. He worked at the memorial and was often seen caring for different parts of the memorial over the years. The memorial is one of the most moving I had ever seen. Soil was taken from each of the 618 villages destroyed by the Nazis to create part of this memorial; the cemetery of villages has a plot for each of the 185 villages that were never rebuilt. The bells at the village ring every 30 seconds, representing some (I think the rate that Belarusian's died in the war) rate of death during WWII. There is also a Memory Wall with a plaque and alcove for each of the concentration camps and sites of mass extermination within Belarus. There are many other symbolic aspects to this memorial, if you’re interested take a look at this site.

We arrived in Minsk at 5:30 and at our hotel at 5:45. We took a quick bathroom break, which I needed since my bladder refused to use a squatter toilet and earned a gold star for the day! Then we did a city tour. Before arriving Maggy had told us that Belarus is a little screwed up… Although this is considered a free state, it is run by a dictator, Aleksander Lukashenko, and as long as you agree with everything he says and vote for him, it’s a free state. I remember Belarus in the news a couple months before my trip, the elections were rigged, and people were actually bold enough to protest. President Bush commended those who protested, because it was such a dangerous thing to do. Anyway, 90% or 95% of industry in Belarus is government run leaving almost no public companies in the country. The major industry is refrigerators and TV’s,; however, Maggy tells us that they have not upgraded these industries in decades. They simply take the manufactured products and put them in warehouses and tell everyone they export them, primarily to Russia. The TV’s we had in our rooms in Russia were in varying degrees of newer then the one we had in our room in Belarus, which was easily 25 years old, technology wise.

On our city tour we saw the building where the Communist Party in Belarus started, The KGB building, Independence Square, and the bridge at the Island of Tears. Everything in Minsk seemed very shinny and happy. It was a weekend so we saw several brides. We also learned that it is traditional in Belarus to go to a memorial on your wedding day, which would explain the bridal party we had seen at Khatyn Village early. There is a religious reason, that I don’t remember, that keeps people from marrying through most of July and August, leaving June as a very popular month for marriage. In Minsk we also saw a lot of happy people relaxing, some on paddle boats. It was a weird place, knowing how much turmoil there is behind the smiling faces. Everyone looked to happy and the place looked too nice, it reminded me of the Stepford Wives. Our local guide explained to us about there industry – refrigerators and TV’s that are exported, mostly to Russia.

Once back at the hotel we checked in and had dinner. For dinner we had very greasy chicken and a delicious pastry for dessert. After dinner and before the exchange place opened up again (it had weird hours, on and off for 30 minute blocks all day) we were standing outside by the bus and looked over and saw a man peeing against a wall. It was so funny, but I didn't have my camera, but James did and he took a picture for me. So James, if you're reading this, can you send me a copy of the picture? Then we went to exchange money, for 5 euros I got 13,250 Belarussian Rubles, Wahooo, I’m rich! At the grocery store, which reminded me of an old school grocery store where the cashier manually enters each price, I struggled to spend little more then half of that money. I ended up giving Lis some of my money because the cashier didn’t have change for her 10,000 bill, since she had already given me all her change. It was actually pretty comical trying to pay for our stuff, since we all had large bills. This was not the first country we went to where ATM’s and exchange places gave you really big bills that no one wanted to take or didn’t have change for, I don’t get it.

After shopping Lis, Jilly and I popped into the bar for a few minutes, then ended up at the casino where James had won (and saved a casino chip for me to take home to my brother-in-law, I bet his other friends don’t have casino chips from Belarus.) I wanted to play the slots once, but you needed a chip or something and I didn’t have enough money to buy chips. What’s wrong with a machine that accepts bills in small denominations like they have in the rest of the world? Owell, there loss. After that failed attempt we went back to the bar for a few minutes and then decided to go to bed early, 10:45 since we had an early start in the morning to get out of Belarus. Yea, we were heading back to a civilization, Poland. I never thought I would say that.

My new netbook

A few weeks ago I bought a netbook by HP. It's a 10 inch, refirbished machine with 1 GB ram and 120 GB of harddrive. I bought it because I have hopefully 3 more trips this year and am sick of dragging around my laptop. So far I like it and I think it will be good for what I bought it for, but I don't love it.

Pros: It's small, light and easy to carry around. It only cost $250. I actually take this around quite a bit. I'm not really the sit in a starbucks and write my blog type, but I do bring it to work a lot. The keyboard is almost full size and I rarely miss a key because of the reduced keyboard. 3 USB ports, perfect for what I use this for and an SD card reader.

Cons: It's slow, really slow sometimes. I was going through some pictures that I had put on it and it moves at a quarter of the speed of my 2 year old laptop, if you're lucky. I was starting to get used to it and didn't think it was quite as bad until I started editting pictures on my laptop. Wow! This is a problem because one of the reasons I wanted it was because I take so many pictures and want to download them. The small screen - when you pull up a browser half the screen is the margins and bars at the top and bottom - it's hard to see much of a webpage. Also, you view pictures quite small.

Bottom line - for what I paid and what I want to use it for, it will be a handy tool. But when it dies I wont replace it with another netbook. More likely, next year I'll get an ipad... Although the screen is about the same size the apps and the programs that run on it allow for a MUCH better use of the space.

Photo of the Week: Paris

The Eiffel Tower at dusk, I like the slightly different angle and the dim lighting of the tower.